Redemeed
by Calliope Clown
Summary: Teemo gets taught a terrifying lesson in being a good Yordle!


Teemo was on one of his usual reconnaissance missions in the forests near one of the most cutthroat areas of Runeterra, Noxus. He'd been informed of "rumors of threatening developments devised by Morgana" (that was all they had told him) there and had been sent to investigate. Reconnaissance being his specialty, he'd felt it would be a simple mission to observe.

Morgana had been planning an armistice between her own and her sister Kayle's faction. Both countries had been going through some tough times financially, and so both girls' armies had felt the cold grip of poverty around their stomachs. They had agreed to meet in Noxus to decide on the treaty's terms.

Teemo arrived in Morgana's office, a fairly large room with various arcane devices organized about, and he stealthed himself. He was prepared to hear everything to be said.

Kayle walked into the chamber and silently placed a document on the stone table at which Morgana stood. The sorceress then leaned forward to read it. Teemo was rather anxious. Was this meeting going to simply be a silent operation between the two girls such that he wouldn't learn anything at all about Morgana's operations? Teemo wasn't tall enough to see what was written, and so was completely unaware of what was happening.

After a few minutes that seemed much longer than they actually were, Teemo's worries began to compound. He was paid purely based on success, and he had already given his friend Tristana inconvenience by failing his last missions and thus needing to eat at her place due to his indigence. What if she'd think him a _good-for-nothing bum_ if he couldn't manage to scrape a living from this? Then she'd _surely_ cut off any ties with him (he was sure of it, with how capricious she was!) and then he'd be left to die in abject loneliness, and then beloved Tristana would _surely_ perish without his protection (she _needed_ him!) What if this document was a surrender by Bandle City's ally, Demacia, to Noxian intrigue, and what if Noxus' campaign of destruction would spread to Bandle City? Teemo shuddered at the thought of that horrifying brute Darius leading a snarling, satanic throng through Bandle City square as the mayor of the town would hand him a document of surrender, only for Darius to slice off the mayor's hand and raise his battle-axe in the air and annihilate his home. Teemo, being a mercenary-for-hire, had been on both sides of that red banner and knew it was painted in blood.

 _Speak of the Devil and he shall appear!_ Wailed Teemo internally as the Hand of Noxus himself barged in through the locked door, shattering the thick deadbolt with sheer brute force by doing so. It seemed the brute was in a conversational mood today, as he complimented Morgana's dress as he strode in between the sisters and gazed at the document for about a minute, wished Kayle a good day, before mentioning he had a meeting with Swain about that day's campaign progress and turning to go. What vexed Teemo increasingly was that he, too, didn't say anything about the document. Before leaving, he swung that axe of his as he put it on a rack in Morgana's chamber. As he did so, it nicked Teemo just a bit as Darius strode out of the chambers. Blood trickled down Teemo's cheek as he stood, petrified that being cut a bit like that would reveal his stealth.

"What's that small figure, right there?" asked Morgana, pointing to the now-revealed Teemo, who flashed pale underneath his lightly-colored cheeks and began panting in quiet terror.

"I don't see anything," replied Kayle.

"It's probably nothing," said Darius, as he _shut the door behind him! There was no escaping now_! thought Teemo. He was stuck in the room with the sisters, and he was sure they both were suspicious of him.

"Let's be sure about this," suggested Morgana, as she picked up a purple Scrying Trinket off a counter, where Teemo, knowing she'd aim it at his location where it'd reveal him, ran to the side a couple yards while she had her back turned. She activated it, and Teemo wasn't to be found. As he ran behind them, however, he passed by a purple mirror, which hummed as he walked passed it. He stood stock still, but Morgana already cast her binding, and it hit him, where it left him in plain sight as the light wrapped around him.

"There he is!" shouted Kayle. Teemo knew he had to think fast—he had to talk his way out of this one. He knew only that there was animosity between the sisters—hopefully an argument'd buy time- and that Noxus was having some sort of tough time. With his heart racing, he sputtered out, "Morgana—K-kayle's been putting—uh—pressure on other—places like—like, uh, Ionia, to embargo with Noxus, and that's why Noxus has been having trouble lately, and she's going to—Kayle's going to—to get the other places to embargo—uh, too, and the document is just a trap!" At this point, Teemo bolted to the door as though Damnation Itself was after his hide!

Whereupon Morgana bound him magically to the floor, he frantically began thrashing to try and get out, but the binding grew stronger and Morgana sapped his strength from the binding. "What's this embargo you're talking about? I'll have you know that my sister and I have not bloodshed but welfare for our kingdoms as goals, and your petty attempts to not only sow discord amongst our peace but to avoid responsibility for it is detestable."

"Why don't we teachthe Yordle some morality? And as you know, sister, justice can so often be an _ugly_ thing", she sneered, as she grabbed Teemo's shoulder and pushed him down to his knees.

Teemo, who was already tearing up at this nightmarish point, couldn't do anything, but his lips quivered as if to speak or start sobbing. After a few seconds, he looked into the two sisters' gazes, wrought with unrestrained malice (Kayle had taken off her helmet), and with the pain in one's throat resulting from tears of guilt, croaked "S-sorry," the word trailing off into a moan as Teemo began sobbing, tears running down his quivering cheeks, mixing with the dried blood from the axe-mark and running down his shaking chin.

"You're sorry for _what?_ Surely you're not aware, and therefore not sorry for, all the pain you would have caused with prolonging this war. My relationship with my sister would have festered. Hundreds of soldiers would have starved to death as resources grew thin, hundreds upon _hundreds_ more would have been killed by the prolonged campaign. I've heard of you—you're paid to hide in the shadows and sow discord among ranks and prolong bloodshed. You kill without thinking—you're a tactical expert at killing, but a master at avoiding the consequences of your actions—you often don't even need to watch your victims slowly succumb to your _infectious, vicious venom."_ (he snatched Teemo's blowgun and venom cask from behind his back, snapped the gun in half, and poured the venom over the Yordle's head, who simply wailed as it made his head ring.

"What's to become of _your_ home town once Noxus, which serves as a barrier from the vicious north, isn't able to protect it? Would you put your own compatriots in danger while claiming to protect them? That's the conniving sort of behavior Yordles _loathe_ —I remember that friend of yours, Tristana, once said to me on the Rift, 'There's nothing worse than a traitor'. Yet you drive the stake into her back with each day you continue this career of chaos. Are you truly her companion if you deceive her like this? If she were aware of your two-facedness, she would leave you forever. You continue your career in spite of this risk—does that mean you value killing over your companion?"

Teemo was about to tell his torturers that yes, he was now aware of the weight of what he did, but that he needed to do so because he needed to support both of them, since they depended on each other, and that while his work often had consequences he was too young to understand, he still strove to do so for good, hence his coming for to protect his town from rumors of a Noxian threat. Morgana eased off on the binding, and he managed to cry out, "I don't like hurting people, but I need to support myself and Tristana!"

"That's just a callous equivocation," replied Morgana, resuming the binding.

"Do you know what must be done with traitors, murderers, with deceivers like you?" asked Kayle. "They must be redeemed—and all true redemption must be wrought by fire. You're still young, and so you have a chance at change, which is why we're teaching you here." As she said this, her sword glowed a fiery incarnadine and its light travelled into her hand. She lay down the sword on the ground and put her hand on Teemo's chest. He felt an arcane flame penetrate his bosom and his spirit, and he howled, and the composure he had built up immediately burned away as he bawled even more than before. His knees gave out and he fell prostrate on the floor, where Kayle moved her hand onto his upper back and maintained the flame.

The pain was inconceivable for the young Yordle, and its wrath was compounded by Morgana, who filled his mind with visions of leagues dead, starving, and towns invaded, and his own town, and his beloved dead as they looked on him with betrayal and grim strangeness. Teemo thought he might become unconscious from the agony, but the pain and the visions grew more and more vivid as he lay.

"Do you love Tristana? Or do you only love her companionship? True selfless relationships are for the companion, not what they give," asked Morgana.

"I—I _do_ love Tristana! We've supported each other for months, now!"

"You are a slow learner, Teemo," said Morgana.

"I love Tristana for who she is! I would do anything for her, just stop it, stop the pain!"

Morgana looked at Kayle, who put her hand back on Teemo's back, but didn't feel any (what). Morgana sat next to Teemo, and they both embraced him for a bit. Teemo felt for a bit like they were his guardians, and that the pain somehow came from his own actions, rather from both of them.

"How can I help it?" he asked. "How can I help doing what helps my friend? She needs me."

"Sometimes, Teemo, one must do things one doesn't think right for the ones he loves. Sometimes, however, one must find another way to make ends meet. Sometimes, when there is no right thing to do, one's friend must go hungry for a night." They lay Teemo on the ground again, and Morgana nodded at Kayle.

The pain and the visions of hurt returned. Teemo felt his soul itself must have been aflame, and he saw Tristana in horror at her murdered friends, as Teemo, in the liquid, murky shadow, held his blowgun in his hands, the end of it dripping with blood.

He had ceased to notice whether he was crying or not. All that mattered was that his soul would remain intact until the next torrent of agony.

"Do you love her, Teemo?" asked Morgana.

"Yes!" he wailed. "I love her _so much_!"

"Do you truly love her, or do you merely want to convince yourself that you do?"  
"I truly love her!"

Morgana nodded at Kayle once more. He felt his soul was being wholly incinerated. He saw Tristana dead at his feet, the same black shadow from before flowing down from the blowgun's end into her mouth and consuming her from the inside.

"You don't love her, Teemo," Kayle instructed, gravely. "You'll kill her like you killed everyone you have before."

Teemo could do nothing but wail.

"Why do you think we're doing this, Teemo? Not to punish you, but to reform you. When we have you taken back to Bandle City, you'll be cured. You'll know how to love but not hurt."

Teemo tearfully looked up at the girls. He felt a sort of closeness to them, closer than friendship, intimacy. He wanted to reach out to them and touch them, but fainted.

He woke up in bed in Tristana's home in Bandle City that evening. Upon seeing Tristana, he burst into tears, and he buried his face in her belly, where she rubbed him on the back for a while. She lifted his head up, and asked him, "What happened, Teemo?" He told her everything, and it took him hours to do so, for all the time he had to stop and bury his face in her belly again and have her comfort him more.

Finally, with trembling lips, he asked her, "Tristana, do you still love me?" As he did so, his crying escalated to loud keening and rocking back and forth, and he bit his still-healing lip again, reopening the wound, and Tristana went to get a bandage, and pressed it against his mouth, and whispered, "Yes, Teemo," as he crying still continued at that intensity. "I'm changed, Tristana," he told her. "I love you more than ever now, and I need you to guide me, so I don't get lost again."

"I can do that," she whispered. "I'll always be there."


End file.
